Frank Morelli
I look forward to joining my students on the path to accomplishing their full potential as bassoonists and artists. Even in the most difficult moments this pursuit should be joyful as well as challenging.
Frank Morelli
Described by the American Record Guide as “as good as it gets,” bassoonist Frank Morelli has enjoyed a prolific career as a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician, recording artist and educator. He is an Emeritus member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and a member of the woodwind quintet Windscape, ensemble-in-residence at the Manhattan School of Music. Morelli has made nine appearances at Carnegie Hall performing concertos, sinfonias concertante, and even a solo with the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band.
At YSM, Morelli teaches a studio of graduate-level bassoon students and coaches chamber music. He has been featured several times on Yale’s Faculty Artist Series and performs and teaches in the summers at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival/Yale Summer School of Music. Frank Morelli was awarded YSM’s prestigious Gustave Jacob Stoeckel Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2022.
Morelli recorded four solo CDs on the MSR Classics label: From the Heart: 20th Century Music for Bassoon and Piano and Romance and Caprice with pianist Gilbert Kalish, Bassoon Brasileiro with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and YSM faculty guitarist Ben Verdery, and Baroque Fireworks with harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper and YSM faculty oboist Stephen Taylor and faculty bassist Donald Palma. He is featured on the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra CD Shadow Dances, which won a 2001 Grammy Award. Recently he recorded two solo albums for the Musica Solis label: An die Musik and From the Soul with YSM faculty colleagues pianist Wei-Yi Yang and mezzo soprano Janna Baty.
Morelli studied with Stephen Maxym at the Manhattan School of Music and later became the first bassoonist to be awarded a doctorate by The Juilliard School. He served for decades on the faculties of The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, and SUNY Stony Brook. He is the editor of The First Complete Weissenborn Bassoon Method and Studies, Op. 8, Vols. 1&2 and Ludwig Milde’s Scale and Chord Studies, Op. 24 (Carl Fischer) and Stravinsky: Difficult Passages for Bassoon (Boosey & Hawkes) and has had several transcriptions for bassoon and woodwind quintet published by TrevCo Music.
Performances
Marlboro Music Festival, Banff Centre, Music@Menlo, Festival Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York City Opera
